INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE. 405 



and has some antiseptic proi)erties. which make it a valuable drug in 

 combating these diseases when given in doses of 2 drams three times 

 daily. 



HEMORBHAGIC SEPTICEMIA. 



Hemorrhagic septicemia is a name applied to a highly fatal, infec- 

 tions disease existing in various species of domestic and wild animals, 

 due to a microorganism having definite biological characters aiid 

 posse.ssing the properties of producing clearly defined and charac- 

 teristic lesions. 



This causal agent, Bacterium hovisepticum, belongs to the same 

 group of cocco-bacilli as those causing chicken cholera, swine plague, 

 and rabbit septicemia, and may be described as an ovoid, nonmotile, 

 polar staining bacterium with rounded ends, ^^-Jo o <>f an inch wide by 

 sjiooo of an inch long, sometimes seen in pairs and sometimes in 

 chains. 



Various names have been applied to this disease, and though the 

 causative agent and the distinctive lejsions are well known, it is more 

 than likely that the affection is seldom recognized. It was described 

 by Bollinger in 1878, and named Wild und Rinderseuche, from its 

 having affected deer, wild boars, cattle, and horses in an epizootic 

 which swept over Germany at that time. However, before this sev- 

 eral epizootics of what was evidently the same disease had been well 

 described, notably that which occured in England in 1854. Since 

 then it has occurred in epizootic and enzootic forms in many sections 

 of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. In this country the disease 

 has been observed in Texas, Tennessee. New York, Minnesota, Penn- 

 sylvania, District of Columbia, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Other 

 names given to it are game and cattle disease, buffalo disease, l)ar- 

 bone, pasteurellosis bovina, ghotwa, and infectious pneumoenteritis. 



In earlier times it was evidently confounded with gloss anthrax, 

 and even now it is probably mistaken in a great many instances for 

 anthrax, blackleg, cornstalk disease, and cerebro-spinal meningitis. 



The disease is essentially a septicemia, or blood poisoning, and the 

 microbic invasion occurs from inoculation probably either through 

 abrasions of the skin or by injm-y to the mucous membranes from 

 coai-se fodder, etc. Moore and Smith have found bacteria belonging 

 to this gi-oup in the mouths and nasal cavities of healthy animals, 

 including cattle; but these organisms proved to be nonpathogenic. 

 As is well known, however, many pathogenic gei-ms at times. exist in 

 a saprophytic state, and it is not hard to conceive how a microbe may 

 cease such existence and assume parasitic or pathogenic properties 

 when the surroundings are eminently favorable. This may be a con- 

 necting link in the etiology of sporadic outbreaks of the disease where 



